When Graham Platner dropped out of Maine’s Senate race, Democrats figured they’d dodged a bullet. All they had to do was find a competent replacement to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), and the seat was theirs for the taking. That was the narrative, anyway.
Then their candidates took the stage Thursday night for the first primary debate, and the bullet found them anyway.
The debate, hosted by News Center Maine on July 16, featured four candidates in the first hour: former State Senate President Troy Jackson, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former congressional aide Jordan Wood, and Dr. Nirav Shah, all of whom lost separate Democrat primaries for higher office in Maine earlier this year. This is the B team.
Don’t take my word for it.
The New York Times, which would love nothing more than to watch Collins lose, reviewed the performance. “Halting answers. Convoluted responses and stilted deliveries,” was its verdict. “Former State Senator Troy Jackson, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Jordan Wood, a former congressional aide, all struggled to match the forceful message and rhetorical prowess of Mr. Platner, whose rallies electrified voters over the last year.”
When even the New York Times can’t spin a Democrat debate into a triumph, you know it was ugly.
The low point belonged to Bellows. The candidates spent the night attacking Collins for supposedly rubber-stamping President Donald Trump’s agenda, and her actual voting record kept getting in the way. Discussing the military operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, Bellows claimed, “What Susan Collins has failed to stop is a completely unstable foreign policy.”
“Collins did vote for a war powers resolution to limit what Trump could do in Venezuela in January, right?” moderator Phil Hirschkorn asked.
“Forgive me,” Bellows said. She explained that she had been on vacation a week earlier and hadn’t expected to run for Senate at all after losing her bid for governor. “When I need to know the facts, I will,” she added. “I’ll do my homework.”
Think about that for a second. A sitting secretary of state, running for the United States Senate, promised voters she would get around to learning the facts at some point down the road.
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Shah fared best. The former top public health official for both Maine and the federal government under Biden, best known as the face of Maine’s COVID response, gave the clearest answers of the night. Even so, moderators had to correct him twice about Collins, including his suggestion that she rubber-stamped Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s confirmation. She voted against it.
Oops.
The second hour featured the lesser known candidates, the C team, which included a man in a dress, whose primary qualification for the U.S. Senate, in his own words, was that he’s a songwriter and writes his own books.
Oh, trust me, I’m not joking.
MODERATOR: “What qualifications do you have to serve in the U.S. Senate?”
Maine Democrat Ashley Webb: “I’m a songwriter and I write my own books.” pic.twitter.com/csMIFkmt4Q
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 17, 2026
And then there was this gem:
Checking in on the Maine Senate Debate:
“I believe they called it pork bellying by cutting out the pork belly from all the bills, sure that would save a lot of money as well…” pic.twitter.com/Gv66Ks43rh
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 17, 2026
The strangest part of the night was watching these candidates wrap themselves in Platner’s agenda while pretending Platner never happened.
It seems like no one has anything good to say about the slate of candidates.
Maine debate commentator torches the Democrat candidates for their lukewarm personalities.
“When it comes to charisma Platner had a lot of advantages… I don’t think that any of those people that we saw just now have that card to play.” pic.twitter.com/AELic1y9S9
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 17, 2026
The good news is there’s another debate next week.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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